THE SUBJECTS / BULGER
The gangster who said the CIA gave him LSD in prison.
RECORD / AT A GLANCE
PARTLY TRUE
Bulger’s participation in LSD tests at the Atlanta penitentiary is widely accepted and fits the Subproject 47 record. The claim that the drugs made him a killer cannot be tested.
THE EVENTS / THE CLAIM / THE RECORD
1957
Bulger takes part in LSD experiments at the federal prison in Atlanta.
7 June 1956
The CIA plans LSD tests on volunteers at a penitentiary.
2013
A jury convicts him of racketeering, including 11 murders.
18 February 2020
Juror Janet Uhlar says she would not have convicted on the murders had she known.
READ THE FILE
The CIA helped create a murderer.
Atlanta, a cover story, and a lifetime of claims.
Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE
3 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.
He wrote that he was dosed more than 50 times in Atlanta after volunteering.
Who says it: Bulger’s letters, reported by AP/NBC.
He was in a prison drug study; a CIA link is reported, but the specific project is not documented in this file’s sources.
Who says it: Bulger; reporters.
No evidence links the tests to his later crimes.
Who says it: Online posts.
OPEN THE RECORD
Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.
Reports Bulger’s prison letters describing LSD experiments at the Atlanta penitentiary in the late 1950s.
Contemporary federal record. It documents the author’s statements and institutional actions; objectives and reported results must still be evaluated separately.
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The CIA helped create a murderer.
Bulger told a juror, Janet Uhlar, in more than 70 letters that the CIA dosed him with LSD more than 50 times in the late 1950s, and that he had suffered hallucinations and violent nightmares ever since. “He didn’t murder prior to the LSD,” Uhlar told the AP. “His brain may have been altered, so how could you say he was really guilty?” [1] The CIA did fund LSD tests on prisoners at a penitentiary. [2]
Reports Bulger’s prison letters describing LSD experiments at the Atlanta penitentiary in the late 1950s.
Contemporary federal record. It documents the author’s statements and institutional actions; objectives and reported results must still be evaluated separately.
Atlanta, a cover story, and a lifetime of claims.
According to the AP, Bulger and fellow inmates were offered reduced time and told they were helping research a cure for schizophrenia. He wrote that it “appealed to our sense of doing something worthwhile for society.” [1]
The Subproject 47 memo of June 1956 plans LSD studies on “normal volunteers” at a penitentiary. It is consistent with Bulger’s account, though his name does not appear in the redacted copy. [2]
Whether LSD caused Bulger’s later crimes is unknowable. He was already serving a federal sentence when he went to Atlanta. Many other test subjects did not become killers.
What we can’t tell you. Bulger is the main source for his own experience, and he had reasons to blame others.
Reports Bulger’s prison letters describing LSD experiments at the Atlanta penitentiary in the late 1950s.
Contemporary federal record. It documents the author’s statements and institutional actions; objectives and reported results must still be evaluated separately.
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